Trump’s individual financial details turned over to Robert Mueller

Donald Trump's banking information has formally been turned over to Robert Mueller, the special attorney who is investigating whether the president's campaign conspired with the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential election.

Deutsche Bank, the German bank that serves as Trump's biggest lender, was forced to submit documents about its client relationship with the president and some of his family members, who are also Deutsche clients, after Mueller issued the bank with a subpoena for info, according to media reports. The news was first reported by Handelsblatt, the German newspaper.

The revelation makes it clear that Mueller and his squad are analyse the president's finances. Trump's son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner, is another client.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment, but told Bloomberg in a statement that it always cooperated with investigating authorities.

Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, denied the report, telling Reuters:” No subpoena has been issued or received. We have confirmed this with the bank and other sources .”

Deutsche Bank declined to comment on Sekulow's statement. But Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, which is investigating the Trump campaign, said Mueller's reported subpoena of Deutsche Bank” would be a very significant developing “.

” If Russia laundered fund through the Trump Organization, it would be far more compromising than any salacious video and could be used as leveraging against Donald Trump and his associates and family ,” Schiff said in a statement. He was referring to a private investigator's unsubstantiated allegation that the Kremlin had video proof of the president's involvement in a salacious sex act.

Schiff also noted that the president's son, Donald Trump Jr, has stated in the past that the Trump Organization received substantial funding from Russia and that there have been” believable allegations” that Russians have utilized the company to buy Trump properties for the purpose of money laundering.

Legal experts who are following the investigation said it presented Mueller was ” following the money” in his search for possible links between the presidential campaign and the Kremlin.

It noted that any investigation into Trump personally may not be limited to the question of whether or not the president sought to obstruct justice when he fired the former FBI chief James Comey.

Instead, said Ryan Goodman, a New York law professor and former Pentagon counsel, it showed that Mueller was possibly examining whether the president is likely to be compromised by Russian interests.

He pointed to the bank's known relationships with Russian oligarchs and its previous dealings in Moscow among reasons why Mueller would be interested in having access to Trump's bank account. The president was in the past loaned about $300 m by the bank. His indebtedness, Goodman said, means that Mueller will want to examine if there are any the linkages between Russia and the president's financial vulnerabilities.

Quick guide

What you need to know about the Trump-Russia inquiry

How serious are the allegations ?

The story of Donald Trump and Russia comes down to this: a sitting president or his campaign is suspected of having coordinated with a foreign country to manipulate a US election. The tale could not be bigger, and the stakes for Trump- and the country- could not be higher.

What are the key questions ?

Investigators are asking two fundamental questions: did Trump's presidential campaign collude at any level with Russian operatives to sway the 2016 US presidential election? And did Trump or others break the law to throw investigators off the road?

What does the country guess ?

While a majority of the American public now believes that Russia tried to disrupt the US election, sentiments about Trump campaign participation tend to split along partisan lines: 73% of Republican, but merely 13% of Democrats, believe Trump did” nothing wrong” in his dealings with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.

What are the implications for Trump ?

The affair has the potential to eject Trump from office. Experienced legal commentators believe that attorneys are investigating whether Trump perpetrated an obstruction of justice. Both Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton- the only presidents to face impeachment proceedings in the last century- were accused of obstruction of justice. But Trump's fate is probably up to the voters. Even if strong evidence of wrongdoing by him or his cohort emerged, a Republican congressional majority is apparently block any action to remove him from office.( Such an action would be a historical rarity .)

What has happened so far ?

Former foreign policy adviser George Papadopolous pleaded guilty to perjury over his contacts with Russians connected with the Kremlin, and the president's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and the other aide face charges of fund laundering.

When will the inquiry come to an end ?

The investigations have an open timeline.

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Trump has consistently denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia and has stated that he did not have any business dealings in Russia. Since then, news has emerged that the Trump Organization sold a significant number of its properties to Russian clients and explored opening a hotel in Moscow, though the plan never came to fruition.

Mueller's examiners have, according to previous media reports, examined Russian purchases of Trump-owned apartments, the president's participation with Russian associates in a development in SoHo, New York, and the president's 2008 sales of his Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch, Dmitry Rybolovlev.

The development however represents a significant jolt to the president.

Deutsche Bank has for months been the subject of intense scrutiny- especially by Democrats on Capitol hill- because of its dealings with the president and its history of banking violations, to be incorporated dealings in Russia.

The $ 300 m in loans, some of which may have been restructured, were extended to Trump before he became president.

The Guardian reported in February that the bank had launched a review of Trump's account earlier this year to gauge whether there were any connections to Russia and had not discovered anything suspicious.

Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and consultant in the White House and Kushner's mother, Seryl Stadtmauer, are also clients of Deutsche Bank.

Deutsche Bank has been the only financing institution willing to lend Trump significant sums since the 1990 s, a period in which other Wall Street banks turned off the tap after Trump's companies declared bankruptcy.

The German bank sued Trump in November 2008 after he failed to repay a $40 m indebtednes on a $640 m real estate loan. Trump countersued and the matter was eventually settled in 2010. Trump then began doing business with Deutsche's private banking business, which widened new loans despite the bank's history of litigation with the onetime real estate tycoon.